I’m finding this story very hard to keep straight, but here goes my best try.
America’s nooze media and its Democrat sponsors are hopping mad at Facebook for, they say, turning over private user data, by the millions, to political campaigns. They’re mad now because Donald Trump’s 2016 primary campaign hired a British firm, Cambridge Analytica, to provide data that might be useful to their efforts; and that Facebook, illegally, was the source of that data.
But in 2012, the Obama campaign used tons of Facebook data, provided by Facebook, for the same purpose–which, according to Investors Business Daily, is “fact” (https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/facebook-data-scandal-trump-election-obama-2012/). Only the nooze media weren’t upset about it then because it benefited Democrats.
Now that the latest story has come out, Facebook stock has plunged, the Federal Trade Commission is investigating, the House Judiciary Committee has questions, and British officials are looking into Cambridge Analytica–which out of one corner of its mouth brags about performing dirty tricks to meddle in elections all over the world, and out of the other, insists it has done nothing wrong.
This comes on the heels of a censorship scandal: Facebook, Google, Twitter, and other social media have been caught suppressing the free speech of conservatives and anyone else who isn’t a flaming leftid. Some of you have personally experienced this.
Rush Limbaugh says the social media are owned, top to bottom, by the Left–so of course they want to censor us. But ownership by the Left notwithstanding, conservatives have successfully used the social media to get their message out, to come together and work together for their cause.
I think the nooze media would like it a lot if the social media just went away, despite the social media’s active efforts on behalf of leftism. They may be allies, but they’re also competition. Noozies would dearly love to go back to the days of no alternative media at all.
And so an intramural food fight is developing among major players on the Left, and who knows how it will turn out? I’d like to see conservatives form their own social media outlets–which may, indeed, be happening–and, if nothing else, compel the existing social media giants to clean up their act for fear of losing half (or more) of their market.
“I’d like to see conservatives form their own social media outlets–which may, indeed, be happening–and, if nothing else, compel the existing social media giants to clean up their act for fear of losing half (or more) of their market.”
That would be interesting. What we’re seeing right now is a high tech version of Alexis de Tocqueville’s tyranny of the masses.
Lest you get too carried away with the routine conservative Trump defense “well, Obama did it too!”, your own link stated this….
“The only difference, as far as we can discern, between the two campaigns’ use of Facebook, is that in the case of Obama the users themselves agreed to share their data with the Obama campaign, as well as that of their friends.
The users that downloaded the Cambridge app, meanwhile, were only told that the information would be used for academic purposes. Nor was the data to be used for anything other than academic purposes.”
A critical difference.. dontya think?
Frankly, I would rather no one, including the Trump campaign, did business with Cambridge Analytica. Bunch of sleazeballs. But that wouldn’t be enough to switch me over to the Democrats.
Also, the nooze media thought it was great that Facebook buddied up with the Obama campaign in 2012. As for getting consent from all those users, I find that hard to believe.
I think we must agree that the last thing we need is anyone who makes our politics dirtier than they already are. I hope the Brits shut down Analytica. We can’t, because we have no jurisdiction.
Now THAT I would agree with you.
The bigger they are, the harder they fall. The latest hashtag is #deleteFacebook.
I still haven’t figured out what the dickens hashtags are supposed to accomplish.